I often hear people say the Aztecs believed they needed to have massive sacrifices to literally make the world go round /keep the sun moving which would indicate that the massive Aztec empire existed at the beginning of time. Did they not record their conquest of the Mayans or any earlier history in their history?
Literally, no. The Aztecs did not believe that the sun would actually fail to rise if they stopped performing sacrifices. This is a distortion of what the Aztecs actually believed.
That said, ritual worship was important for maintaining the stability, fertility, and prosperity of the world. For the Aztecs, the natural forces of the world existed in a series of cycles, which were unfortunately unstable, and would degrade over time, leading to disaster. Now, while the sun dying was an ultimate possibility, it was a remote one, and the Aztecs were far more concerned with drought, frost, and floods. In fact, more of their yearly rituals were devoted to rain and water gods than to sun gods. Ritual action served as a means of restoring these cycles to their proper order. First, they re-enacted the mythic creation of these cosmic forces, thereby returning them to a younger, more vigorous and dynamic state. Second, they restored sacred power to the gods, who helped to maintain those cycles. I should also note, that this ritual worship was not limited to human sacrifice. It also involved offering incense, foodstuffs, manufactured goods, precious stones, art, dance, prayers, flowers, and so on. For most people, this was how interacted with their gods, while human sacrifice was relegated to high religious authorities.
Its also worth pointing out that these sacrifices did not need to be massive. Most of them were very small, with only a few victims. This is because sacrifices revolved around an ixiplta, or god impersonator. The ixiplta carried out specific ritual functions before being sacrificed. It is also worth pointing out that an ixiplta need not be a living human. It could also be an effigy, idol, or other substitute. We tend to think of Aztec sacrifices as massive, but this is something of a historical misunderstanding. First, Conquistadors often exaggerated the number of human sacrifice victims. Archeologist haven’t found anything even close to their numbers. Second, most people confuse a specific group of Aztecs, the Mexica, with the Aztecs as a whole. Most of our reports of Aztec human sacrifice come specifically from the Mexica. Although human sacrifice was practiced by all Aztecs (and all Mesoamericans), the Mexica practiced it at a higher rate. Partly, this was because the Mexica Empire was simply larger and had more resources with which to conduct such sacrifices. However, they also absorbed a lot of the ceremonies practiced by other people, basically taking them over. Therefore, using the Mexica as a model artificially inflates the amount of human sacrifice in Mesoamerica. And then remember that this number was subject to the aforementioned exaggeration.
Sources:
Benson, Elizabeth and Boone, Elizabeth H.: - Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica, (Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1984)
Carrasco, Davíd:
Durán, Diego:
Kerkhove, Ray: - ‘Dark Religion? Aztec Perspectives on Human Sacrifice’, Sydney Studies in Religion (2008)
Pennock, Caroline Dodds: - Bonds of Blood: Gender, Lifecycle and Sacrifice in Aztec Culture, (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)
Sahagún, Bernardino de:
Sigal, Pete: - The Flower and the Scorpion: Sexuality and Ritual in Early Nahua Culture, (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011)
Smith. Michael E.: